The State Council of China is expected to grant approval to the construction of three nuclear power stations after a near four-year suspension.
The three projects are located in Northeast China's Liaoning Province as well as East China's Shandong and Fujian provinces, along the country's eastern coast. The projects will have an installed capacity of 7 million kilowatts in total, financial news website eeo.com.cn reported.
Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research, said that the 60th anniversary of China's nuclear indusrty and timing of approvals may be related.
After a slowdown caused by the safety checks in recent years, the development of the industry is expected to pick up pace from this year, as the country feels the pressure to meet energy saving and emission reduction targets, Lin added.
The country capped its energy consumption and assured to increase the share of non-fossil fuels, according to the statement released by the State Council.
By 2020, the installed capacity of China's nuclear power stations in operation is expected to reach 58 million kilowatts, and approval for new projects on the eastern coast should resume at an appropriate time, the statement said.
Fifty nuclear power stations are required to meet the target in 2020. Considering that it takes around six years--from approval to operation--to build a nuclear power station, the industry is set to register rapid growth in 2015, Lin pointed out.
Nuclear power capacity accounted for only 2.59 percent of China's electrical power output in the third quarter of 2014, which means there is great potential for the development of nuclear power, according to a report in the Beijing-based Securities Daily.